A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6) Read online

  Written by Brandon Varnell

  Illustrated by Kirsten Moody

  Edited by Crystal Holdefer

  Copyright © 2017 Brandon Varnell

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, the scanning, uploading and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the author.

  Thank you for your support of the author's rights.

  ISBN: 1539440508

  ISBN-13: 978-1539440505

  Words you should know:

  Yuri: Also known by the wasei-eigo construction Girls' Love, is a Japanese jargon term for content and a genre involving love between women in manga, anime, and related Japanese media.

  Ecchi: Noting or pertaining to a subgenre of Japanese manga, anime, computer games, etc., characterized by light, playful sexual themes and imagery.

  Moé: A Japanese term used in connection with manga or anime to describe something precious, usually (but not always) the ideal of youthful and innocent femininity.

  Yandere: A Japanese term for a person who is initially very loving and gentle to someone (or at least innocent) before their devotion becomes destructive in nature, often through violence and/or brutality.

  yamato nadeshiko: A Japanese term meaning the "personification of an idealized Japanese woman", or "the epitome of pure, feminine beauty".

  Yakuza: A Japanese organized crime syndicate similar to the Mafia.

  Hentai: A subgenre of the Japanese genres of manga and anime, characterized by overtly sexualized characters and sexually explicit images and plots.

  Shōjo: A genre of Japanese comics and animated films aimed primarily at a young female audience, typically characterized by a focus on personal and romantic relationships.

  kinrath pup: A creature found in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

  Seiyuu: The Japanese word for voice actor or voice actress. It is occassionally used by passionate fans of Japanese video games and anime series but has no literal difference from its English-language equivalent.

  Sanzu river: The Sanzu River, orRiver of Three Crossings, is a Japanese Buddhist tradition and religious belief similar to the Greek concept of the River Styx.

  Eroge: A visual novel with erotic content. plural form of eroge.

  Galge: A bishōjo game or gal game is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". These games are a subgenre of dating sims targeted towards a heterosexual male audience.

  CONTENT

  Chapter 1: Homecoming

  Chapter 2: Making an Attempt at Returning to Normality

  Chapter 3: Existential Trauma

  Chapter 4: I'll Always Love You

  Chapter 5: The Date

  Chapter 6: Resolve

  Chapter 7: Fighting Dirty

  Chapter 8: In Sickness and in Health

  Chapter 9: Guns, Guts, and Genjutsu

  Chapter 10: A Seemingly Normal Day

  Chapter 11: A Reason to Never Give Up

  Chapter 12: Violent Recourse

  Chapter 13: Black Cat Wanders Back

  Chapter 14: A Convention Stained Red

  Chapter 1

  Homecoming

  The Bodhisattva sat upon his throne within the large entrance hall of his home. The throne, a construct made of the purest gold with intricate silver designs etched upon its surface, had been forged by the best Mountain Kitsune crafters. It had been a gift from the Great Mountain Clan, who had crafted it from precious metals found deep within the Pico de Orizaba Mountain.

  As was the case with all kitsune abodes, the Bodhisattva’s entrance hall was an expression of opulence. The marble tiles glittered as light filtered in through the many open windows that made up the left wall. Massive Corinthian columns sparkled in a combination of silver and gold, with artful designs depicting the history of the Bodhisattva.

  Humans believed the Bodhisattva to be the Buddha and his many former lives. The truth was that the nine-tailed kitsune, the Celestial Kyūbi of the Great Celestial Clan, had always been the Bodhisattva. Each Celestial Kitsune whom was bestowed the ninth tail by Lord Inari, God of Foxes, became the next Bodhisattva, an enlightened being that existed beyond the comprehension of mere humans and mundane yōkai.

  Since the Shénshèng Clan’s founding, every leader had been bestowed the ninth tail, just as it had been with the Gitsune Clan. They were the only two clans who retained the title of Kyūbi. The last of the three Kyūbi was always selected from one of the other Great Clans.

  Kneeling before him was one of his sons, his second eldest and the one in charge of gathering and disseminating information. He never stayed in one place for very long, this boy. He often traveled between cities, states, and countries, though the Bodhisattva knew that his son had recently taken a liking to the United States. He’d said something about the women there being easy to seduce.

  “We have also learned that Luna Mul, along with thirty of her clansmen, has been killed.”

  The Bodhisattva shifted in his seat. “Luna has been defeated?”

  Luna Mul was the current head of the Great Ocean Clan. A kitsune with six tails, she was one of the more powerful kitsune in the world. Most kitsune never made it to their sixth tail. In a world fraught with danger, many kitsune were killed before even reaching their fourth tail.

  “Yes, Father.”

  “By who?” he asked, his frown imperceptible. “The last I remember, she and her clan were securing California for me. It should have been a simple task.”

  He had been hoping to use them as a means of gaining a stronghold within the United States. Long had the United States been a safe haven for yōkai who belonged to no clan. None of the great yōkai clans, be they kitsune, tengu, or Nurahiyon’s Night Parade of One-Thousand Demons, resided there. It would have made the perfect stronghold, a bastion with which he could use to move his forces and further influence the world. And also…

  It’s the place where the granddaughter of that accursed woman lives.

  “According to what we’ve discovered, Luna was using this as an opportunity to expand her slave-trading operation. This normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but it appears that she ran afoul of the Sons and Daughters of Humanity.”

  The Sons and Daughters of Humanity; they were yet another thorn in his side. They were an anti-yōkai organization, one that did its utmost to kill yōkai wherever they went. So far, he’d managed to keep them out of China, but he knew that they were spread across most of the world.

  “The Sons and Daughters of Humanity would not have been able to kill someone of Luna Mul’s strength.”

  His son hesitated. “We did learn that Luna Mul was not killed by the Sons and Daughters of Humanity, but someone else.”

  Nodding, he asked, “Who killed her?”

  Another moment’s hesitation. “Our spies have confirmed that the person who killed Luna Mul was a human.”

  The Bodhisattva blinked. “What did you just say?”

  “I said that Luna Mul was killed by a human—”

  “No, no, I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “I don’t think I heard you correctly. What did you just say?”

  He did not move at all. As if he had been carved from stone, The Bodhisattva looked down at his son with an unwavering, uncompromising gaze.

  His son squirmed beneath him but pressed on. “Luna Mul was killed by a human.”

  The Bodhisattva needed a moment. “A human?”

  His second son, Zhìlì, shift
ed nervously before nodding his head. “Yes.”

  “A human killed a six-tailed kitsune?”

  “According to the report, he caught her by surprise,” Zhìlì admitted. “He shot her with a standard military grade pistol while she was distracted.”

  From a purely physical standpoint, kitsune were one of the weakest yōkai races. If they weren’t using reinforcement or some other physical augmentation technique, then they were no stronger than a human. A bullet to the head could easily kill a kitsune who was distracted.

  The Bodhisattva withheld his scowl. “Guns. Inelegant creations suitable for a species of apes.”

  Zhìlì nodded, though whether in agreement or something else was unknown to him. “According to the report I received from my spies, Luna Mul was toying with two other yōkai: a River Kitsune who goes by the name of Kotohime, and the inu, Kiara F. Kuyo.”

  The Bodhisattva’s right hand twitched. While he did not hold any fear of the inu species like many of his brethren, he still hated inu as a whole. He also knew of those names. Kiara F. Kuyo was a prominent businesswoman and owner of the largest chain of fitness centers in the United States. Then there was Kotohime, the bodyguard of Lilian Pnév̱ma, the girl that his youngest had desired with a fervent passion.

  The Bodhisattva shunted aside his annoyance at hearing those names and thought about this new information. Luna Mul had always been an incredibly arrogant woman, too sure in herself and too secure in her own power. Yes, he was not surprised that she had been killed. He had even expected it to happen eventually. What surprised him wasn’t that she had been killed, but who had killed her.

  Humans were weak creatures, pathetically so. While he harbored no hatred toward the primate race, he didn’t like their arrogant sense of superiority. They were a race who felt entitled to more than they deserved.

  Ever since the creation of guns and the atomic bomb, humans had become too dangerous to openly challenge. Kitsune—nay, all yōkai had been forced into hiding. While they might have been able to defeat the humans if they rallied together, such a thing would never happen.

  There were many different yōkai races, hundreds, in fact, and these races did not get along. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that most yōkai hated each other. There were always wars going on between one race of yōkai or another.

  Yes, yōkai were too embroiled in their own hatred toward each other to focus that hatred onto humanity. That wasn’t even going into the hatred between the many different clans within each race.

  His own race was a prime example. Few were the clans who got along with each other. The kitsune world was one of cutthroat politics and backdoor deals. Alliances were forged and backstabbing was most often the end result. While not true of all kitsune alliances, such as the pact between the Great Ghost Clan of Pnév̱ma and the Great Forest Clan of Wald, for the most part, the various kitsune clans did not get along. Almost all alliances made among kitsune ended in treachery.

  Just like his brief attempt at allying with the Pnév̱ma Clan.

  The Bodhisattva took a deep breath. What had happened to his son was regrettable, but it was also his own fault. The boy should have consulted him before going after that girl.

  However, that did not mean that he would let what happened to his son go unpunished. He had already hired an assassin from a yōkai ninja village located within the United States—he didn’t know where the village was located, as they kept themselves hidden like any good village of assassins—though he had not heard any word since commissioning them for the task. He wondered what was taking so long.

  Shaking his head, the Bodhisattva dispelled those thoughts and focused back on his son.

  “Tell me what you know about this human,” he commanded. “I am intrigued and wish to know more.”

  ***

  I chased after her, running down the stairs, across the hall, to the entrance, and out of the convention center. The doors slid open and my feet hit the pavement.

  She was running toward them, those three yōkai who’d just finished fighting. Two of them were down, and the last loomed over them, her raven locks of hair drifting in a breeze and her six tails writhing behind her like snakes.

  She was ahead of me, screaming at the woman, her voice filled with rage and fear; rage at how her bodyguard had been hurt and fear at what this woman could do. The rage had overpowered her fear, or perhaps it was the fear that was fueling her rage. I didn’t know.

  Her two tails flailed forward to launch two balls, twin spheres of light, which grabbed the woman’s attention and made her move. Two more were flung and subsequently blocked by a wall of water. The water undulated, then morphed, shifted, and changed from a wall into a spear.

  A spear that was soon thrust through soft, pliant flesh. The ground was painted with blood. She stumbled forward, and then collapsed like a marionette without a master.

  I screamed, raised the gun in my hand, and fired.

  Blood splattered across my face.

  ***

  Kevin jerked awake with a start as the seat that he was sitting on shook. He looked around for a second, wondering where he was. It was only after a loud noise filled his ears and he spotted several buildings and a runway through the small window that he remembered; he was on a plane heading back to Arizona.

  It had been three days since the San Diego Comic-Con that had gone horribly, horribly wrong. It had been three days since a group of kitsune and an anti-yōkai faction calling itself the Sons and Daughters of Humanity had fought and killed each other. Three days since he’d fought and nearly died against Ken.

  Three days since he had killed someone.

  Kevin pressed a hand to his face and squeezed his eyes shut. It did not bring any reprieve, however, as the moment his eyes were closed, he saw the woman that he had killed, her body jerking in spastic motions as bullets penetrated her flesh, blood spraying from her like a fine mist to paint the ground carmine.

  The last three days had not been easy. Due to the extensive damage that Kotohime and Kiara had taken, plus Kotohime’s bad case of youki exhaustion, they’d been cooped up in the hospital. Kevin was grateful that Lilian and the others had been there, or he’d have probably gone stir-crazy. His mate and his mate’s sister had occupied most of his time with their antics, which had been a good thing. It kept him from focusing too much on the blood that now stained his hands.

  Christine, Lindsay, Eric, the twins Alex and Andrew, and Heather had eventually arrived when they were found by Kuroneko’s people. They’d apparently been stuck in Kiara’s bus, which had been damaged to the point that Kiara had deemed paying for the cost of repairs to be a waste. She’d decided to get a nice little bonus check from her insurance company instead—little being a mild euphemism.

  During that time, Kevin and Lilian had filled the twins in on the yōkai world—not like they could have kept it a secret after what happened at the Comic-Con anyway.

  Alex and Andrew had not been as surprised as Kevin expected them to be.

  Everyone was gathered inside of the hospital room. Kevin and Lilian were sitting on a bed. Iris had been sitting on the same bed, but she had tried to grope Lilian, and thus, she had received a tail smack down that sent her to the floor, which was where she remained. Christine and Lindsay were sitting on a pair of chairs. Eric was standing near the back. The twins, Alex and Andrew, were sitting cross-legged on the floor.

  Kevin had just finished explaining everything to his friends: the existence of yōkai, who the Sons and Daughters of Humanity were, and the fact that Lilian and her family were all kitsune.

  Neither Alex nor Andrew seemed surprised.

  “We always knew that Lilian was weird,” Alex admitted after Kevin finished his long-winded explanation.

  The russet-haired boy seemed pretty calm about what he’d learned, all things considered. He just sat on the ground, his legs crossed, looking completely untroubled, though Kevin suspected that the young man might have been in shock, or perhaps the inf
ormation that had been doled out had yet to sink in.

  “Oi!” Lilian pouted at being called weird, not that it did much good.

  “Yeah, anyone who’s decided that you are the one for them and not me has to be off their rocker,” Andrew added.

  “Oi!” Now it was Kevin’s turn to pout.

  “Uh, brother, I think you mean anyone who decided to date Kevin over me has to be crazy.”

  “No, I didn’t. Who the hell would want to date you?”

  “If given a choice between you or me, every girl would choose me over you.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Of course I know what I’m talking about. Face it, Andrew, I’m better than you are in every way, shape, and form. No girl would choose you over me. You’re a loser.”

  “That does it! You’ve frayed the last bit of my patience, and now you’re going to get it!”

  “Bring it, son! I’ll break my foot off in your ass so hard you’ll be shitting in a bedpan for weeks!”

  As the fraternal twins began a scuffle in the hospital room, rolling around on the floor and pulling each other’s hair out like a couple of middle school girls, Kevin and Lilian continued pouting.

  “Lilian, I feel like none of my friends appreciate me.”

  “And I feel like they think I’m crazy.”

  Kevin gazed into his mate’s eyes, feeling his chest glow with warmth, love, and compassion. “You’re not crazy, Lilian. I’m the crazy one. Crazy for you.”

  “Oh, Kevin,” Lilian said softly, her eyes growing warm and a little moist. “I’m crazy for you, too.”

  “Lilian.”

  “Kevin.”

  “Lilian!”

  “Kevin!”

  “I’ll kill you both!” Christine shouted as Kevin and Lilian began hugging.

  The feeling of something shuffling against him snapped Kevin out of his reverie. He looked down. Crimson locks of hair framed a gorgeous face that was reminiscent of a fairy tale princess. Her body was pressed into his, her legs thrown over his lap, and her right arm was nestled between his back and the seat. Her lips were parted in a way that enticed him to lean down and claim them in a kiss.